Thanksgiving Camping turns into off site with family in May

[lledman]

Sooo excited so I just booked a 3 bedroom unit at the Cypress Pointe Grande Villas Resort. I think this is the same place that we stayed at in 2004 – there are 2 sister resorts side by side and I can’t remember which one we were at before – the rooms had dated décor but were clean and I loved all the activities at the resort and how close it is to DTD. I had been reading a lot about the crowds at Easter/Spring Break so SIL and I both would rather not pull our kids from school but sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do – so we are now locked in with a nonrefundable deposit for May 15-22, 2011. I’m glad that she was willing to change dates too and our kids can do the parks together – we spent a lot of time with them when we went the last time. Best of all DH and I will get to spend our 11th (such a milestone) anniversary at Disney World!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lledman]

Ok, so I think I need to be committed or medicated at least.

As soon as I made our reservation I started looking at park hours from the previous years for the time we are traveling and using my scientific method that hasn’t failed me (too much) yet I think I have a heads up on the plan for our trip. I really wanted to be flexible with this trip but I feel like if I don’t have a plan that it will drive me crazy – I can’t stand to play the what do you want to do today game – but at the same time any plans I make are usually very tentative (of course the exception is ADRs) – I don’t want to go to the parks in the rain if it’s supposed to be sunny the next 4 days so there’s always room for improvement – I like to think that I just analyze the date (park calendar) and then make informed decisions.

Sunday - The day we arrive will be the last day of the flower and garden festival at EPCOT and a Grad Night at MK. I really like driving though the night with the kids but I’m thinking we’ll try to leave Saturday morning sometime after we get up and finish packing (shouldn’t be much to do b/c honestly I would love to pack our bags tonight so I’m sure they’ll be done a week in advance). If we do that I doubt that we’ll drive though the night, I know we’ll need to make lots of stops driving during the day with the kids but I can’t imagine sitting at home all day knowing that Disney is waiting for me. I hope to arrive around noon and I hope that our room will be ready early. If it is then I’ll put the kids down for a nap and then head out to the grocery store or Wal-mart for our food for the week. I really want to schedule dinner out at T-Rex for this night b/c I know it’s a non-park day for us but I think that the older kids will like exploring the resort more so I’m not going to make any plans for this day – other than my grocery excursion.

Monday – should be Morning EMH at AK and evening at MK so that means we’ll be heading to EPCOT. I want to try to get an 8 am Princess Breakfast reservation but I’m not sure if that will be possible since there are going to be 13 of us but if not my second preference is as close to lunch time as possible – I really love character meals but hate the idea of wasting my park/ride time eating. This is Tyler’s favorite park so I’d like to try to spend the whole day here. If the little kids need a break, either DH or I will take them back for a break but the other will stay with Ty and we’ll meet back up later in the day.

 

[lledman]

Tuesday – should be morning EMH at EPCOT so we’ll start our day at AK and then after lunch either take a rest at the resort or head straight over to the MK.

Wednesday - after 2 hopefully full and productive days in the parks I think we’ll need a break. Now when I say a break that is open to interpretation – we have 8 “more” options left on our passes so that means Disney Quest or the water parks could be fun or so could staying at the resort if that’s what we choose to do.

Thursday – my prediction is morning EMH at MK so we’ll head over to the Studios. Whenever we finish up here for the day we’ll switch over to the MK.

Friday – another break day – who knows what we’ll do

Saturday – I’m thinking morning EMH at the Studios and this should also be Star Wars weekend so we’ll head back to EPCOT for anything we missed on our first day – and if the ADRs don’t pan out for day 1 this will be my alternative day. At lunch time we’re going to switch over to the MK (again – I’m hoping that since there are no holidays and school should be in session just about everywhere that the parks won’t be too overly crowded and that even with just doing the MK in the afternoon/evenings that with planning 3 trips there that we’ll be able to do everything we want – but if not then we’ll just spend our entire final day at MK).

Sunday – late morning ARD at Chef Mickey’s and then the long drive home.

Originally I had only wanted to use 3 days from our passes (remember DMIL bought us 10 day park hopper/water park and more non expiring tickets when we went with them the last time and we have 6 park days and 8 more options left on them) but I’m thinking the next time we do Disney we’ll try to do Universal too so as long as I can conserve 2 hopping days I’ll work something out – I don’t know when we’ll be going back so I want to make sure we enjoy this trip as much as possible.

 

[lledman]

Maybe another change of plans but this one is minor compared to the rest of my flip-flopping. I can’t imagine not being able to check into the timeshare until Sunday – I mean that’s a whole weekend of waiting to get to FL, thus my original thought of leaving sometime on Saturday. I work what’s called a compressed work schedule (CWS) – week A is four 9-hour days and then an 8-hour day while week B is four 9-hour days and then a day off. It just so happens that Friday the 13th is my day off. So that means a whole nother day with nothing but leaving for Disney on my mind. My new thought process is that we should leave Friday night after DH gets off work. I can pack up on Friday while I’m at home and he doesn’t usually go to bed until after midnight anyway so we’ll just drive until he’s tired and then sleep at a rest stop. The next morning (Saturday) we’ll make our way to our destination – where might that be you ask – well I’m not sure yet –







I’m thinking Daytona Beach but we’ll see. I want to find a decent cheap hotel room that is less than 3 hours from Disney, where DH can crash, and I can take the kids to do something fun for the afternoon/evening. We’ll get a good nights rest and then leave the next morning for Orlando.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we’ll be heading to one of the water parks on Sunday – I think Blizzard Beach since we did TL in 2008. Using my psychic skills (and previous year’s park hours posted on the internet) I predict that the water parks will be open from 10-5 every day during our visit and since check in at the timeshare isn’t until 4 pm this will be a great way to kill some time. I will probably check in that morning before going to the water park and hopefully our room will be ready mid afternoon so when we are finished at the water park we can go back for late naps for the little ones while I do the grocery shopping and then we’ll all do dinner at the timeshare, I’ll make the T-Rex reservation for later in the week on one of our planned off days (probably Wednesday). We’ll still have time to explore the timeshare property and get to bed at a decent hour to be ready to hit EPCOT bright and early for our pre-park opening Princess ADR (wishful thinking on my part that we’ll secure it)

 

[lledman]

We will be camping again this weekend up at Patapsco Valley State Park. It’s not a favorite campground of ours but it serves it’s purpose – Tyler has his state small-bore rifle match about 20 minutes from there – if we camp we don’t have to drive for 2 hours to get there early on a Saturday morning. I’m excited though b/c I just realized that it’s close to 4 chain discount stores I like to visit but we don’t have any near us (Ollies) and about 20 minutes away from the outlet mall where the Disney Outlet is – shopping trip for me. There’s also a croc outlet at the mall so I plan to stop in there as well. I don’t need anything other than a new pair of crocs but I love just to browse even if I don’t make purchases.

 

[lledman]

About a month or 2 ago we decided that the little 2 had outgrown the little tykes swing set we had in our yard and DH was tired of moving it to cut grass - we have a bigger wooden one that used to be Tyler’s and they play on that exclusively so why keep 2. We offered it to my 18 month old nephew but my sis declined so I then offered it to my 20 month old god son. He loves it. Well this weekend when they came to Dev's birthday party my BFF had a thank you card from my godson with a $50 Disney gift card inside for our trip. Wasn't that sweet of them.

 

[lledman]

Had a great Columbus Day weekend camping trip to Cunningham Falls State Park in Thurmont, MD – about 2 hours from home.

We were in site number 20 – electric only but right next to a community water spigot and on the inside loop that backs to the bathhouse.




I left work ½ day on Friday and picked Tyler up from school. Chris was off so he got Devin off the bus and fed the younger 2 lunch and then hooked up the camper. We left home around 12:30 – nap time!!!!!!!!!! We had an uneventful drive up – it was great that the kids all slept b/c I made a 2 pm conference call for work and got a little vacation time back. We arrived and set up camp with no troubles. After a quick snack we decided to walk/hike the campground trail to the falls.




There weren’t many people there when we arrived which was great for taking photos



Check out those crazies!!! I’m terrified of heights so I was perfectly content with staying on the ground and taking photos.



and another photo on the hike back to the campground


We had pizza pockets over the campfire for dinner. During dinner, Devin complained that he loose tooth was really bothering him so Chris asked to see it. He pulled it out without Dev even knowing it. Dev was soo excited – until he lost the tooth (for the second time in 5 minutes) showing it to Tyra – of course Chris and I looked for like 45 minutes but couldn’t find it. So we wrote a note to the tooth fairy and she came that night just the same.

 

[lledman]

Saturday we drove through Gettysburg on our way to the National Apple Harvest Festival. We enjoyed our morning there but all agreed that we had a better time last year at the Bob Evans Family Farm Festival.







6 other families we know were camping at the Gettysburg Campground this weekend to go to the Apple Harvest Festival – it was nice to meet up and spend some time with them there.

Tyra and Devin had fun doing a pie eating contest – even though neither of them knew what to do – lol Poor Tyler is allergic to apples – he was just posing in that photo above b/c he didn’t want to be left out.




On our way back to the campground the 2 little ones took a nap. I had read about a National Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial in Emittsburg so we stopped on our way back. Tyra woke up bur Devin remained asleep in the truck.




We didn’t know it until we got home but Chris’ grandfather’s name is on a plaque there – of course we didn’t think to look for his name so we now have a reason to go back.

There was also an amazing 9/11 memorial there as well



When we got close to the campground Devin woke up so we decided to go to the beach area and check out the playground there.


the beach area of the lake is pretty cool. We may have to come back when it’s warmer out for the kids to check it out.


There’s a less strenuous but still about a mile round trip trail here that leads to the falls as well. I guess a day can make a ton of difference b/c the falls were very crowded. Here’s a pretty picture Tyler snapped along the way


After a dinner of burgers with mac& cheese we cleaned up a little and then played my favorite board game – the Magic Kingdom Game – you go throughout the MK visiting attractions whose cards you drew and then have to be the first to make your way out of the park

 

[lledman]

Sunday we packed up and then headed back to Gettysburg to visit the Boyd’s Bear Factory.




On our way home we stopped by a cute Burger King that was all 50’s décor

 

[lledman]

Yesterday friends of ours came over and we took our annual Halloween photos of the kids. There are now 10 of them so we can't go to Target or JC Penny and we weren't happy with going to Wal-Mart last year. Since everyone was being cowboys or cowgirls I decided that my dad's red barn would be a perfect back drop. I love the way they turned out.

 

[lledman]

We had an amazing time at Disney On Ice – Toy Story 3 on Friday night. I think this may be the best one we’ve seen yet. The kids and I loved it – I wish Chris would have went with us b/c I bet he would have liked it too – it was nothing like the other ones we’ve seen.











I don't want to give away the show but the first half was a recap of Toy Story 1 & 2 and then the second half was a 1 hour condensed version of TS3.

I'll post all my photos in a link once I upload them to my kodak site but here's the last 3 I took before we left.

 

[lledman]

Sorry to have been slacking on my pre-trip report - not sure if anyone is even following along anyway but I love to type out my thoughts and look back on them later so if nothing else - this ones for me

Life has been busy - Hubby still is working weird hours - one week things are good and then the next 2 weeks he's lucky to get 20 hours a paycheck. He's looking for a new job but unfortunately everyone and their brother seems to also be looking. We have a friend that has a little pull with a very great opportunity so hopefully something will soon pan out for him. In the mean time I’ve sought out a little side income on my own by signing on with a wonderful home based party business - not sure if I can name it on here but I feel like it truly has offered me 31 blessings as of late. The company is fairly new to my area which helps b/c lots of people are interested in our products. Since the Disney savings fund went to stay afloat while hubby's work has been slack this is my new funding source. I'm happy to say that with in my first month I was able to do well enough to pay all of my start up costs, purchase the extras I wanted for myself and a few Christmas presents, as well as pay to participate in 3 local vendor shows - my next commission check will be enough to pay for our week's worth of lodging and every one from there out will be dedicated strictly to Disney.

Anyway – the point of this update – 180 days until I arrive in Florida. I’ve decided that we are definitely going to leave Friday after work and drive to Daytona on Saturday. There we’ll stay in a cheap beach front hotel (do those words even go together – lol). hubby can sleep while I take the kids to play on the beach. Then Sunday we’ll wake up and drive the remaining 2 hours to Disney – probably visiting a water park if the weather permits until after lunch when we’ll go and check into our condo.

If hubby gets a new job by May hopefully he can negotiate a week’s worth of leave for Disney but if not I’ve convinced myself that I can do it on my own – I think I’ve lost my mind but we are going – no more procrastinating. I really am planning on him joining us though.

 

[lledman]

I did my math wrong and yesterday was the day I could call to book the Princess Storybook Breakfast at EPCOT for our first park day. I really wanted to get in at 8 am but knew that I’d need to call super early b/c there are 13 of us. Well today I realized that yesterday was my call day – darn the luck – I just knew I’d totally messed up. Well I called anyway and guess what – got exactly what I wanted for all 13 of us under one reservation (I was prepare to make 2 or 3 separate reservations around the same time if we could get in earlier that way). I’m on cloud 9 – my tiny girl and 5 nieces will love this.

 

[lledman]

Wednesday night dinner at T-Rex – check

I plan this to be our down day but I have a feeling that means that we’ll be heading over to Disney Quest for a while so I went ahead and booked this for Dev.

 

[lledman]

Late morning breakfast at Chef Mickey's on departure day - check!!!!

Funny how I got the exact time I wanted for both reservations where there all 13 of us but when I called to make the reservation for my family only I had to give a little on my request time -

 

[lledman]

Everyone ready for Christmas??? For some reason I just can’t get in the mood this year – I still don’t have a tree up or decorated anything – usually I put up an artificial tree after Halloween. Gifts are 90% done though so that’s good.


Thoughts of a trip without DH are staring to creep into my mind. I’ve started thinking about a lot of alternative ideas in case he’s not able to make it on this trip with us. I’m hopeful that he’ll be coming but he’s still looking for a new job - hasn’t heard back from anywhere he’s applied, most places have a 6 month probationary period and we are within our 6 month countdown window now. His current job is getting a little better with the hours – if he doesn’t work then he doesn’t get paid and he only works when they have work to be done. He’s used up all his leave to make up for horrible pay weeks in the past meaning a week in Disney will = a week of leave without pay.

I’ve already built in extra drive time into my original plans so I really don’t see things there being affected too much if I have to be the solo driver. I do love the fact that he is the driver and I am the navigator so on the interstate for 720 miles I can slack off – NAP (or help the kids with what ever) – can’t do that if I’m the driver. But I will have Ty who is a huge help and the more I think about it my MIL will probably ride down with us too so I’ll have someone to keep me company in the front seats.

The biggest change to the trip will come in going to the parks – I can handle my children just fine but it’s always easier to have 2 adults to the 3 of them – they already outnumber us then - lol. Tyra is 38.5 inches and Devin is 46.5 inches tall now so there will be some rides that they both still can’t do (Tiny Girl moreso than Dev). I guess I’ll just have to plan to spend more time with my SIL’s family – luckily we all get along and she has 2 older girls along with 3 smaller girls so our age groups match pretty well. My concern is that Tyler will have to sacrifice more on this trip if DH isn’t there to do stuff with him but with his 2 cousins along he should still be able to do everything he wants.

Guess we’ll still just have to play the lets wait and see game.

 

[lledman]

It’s less than 10 days before Christmas and snowing!!!!! Almost 2 inches out there soo far – how awesome – don’t think I’ll come into work tomorrow. Anyway, what better way to celebrate the snow and Christmas season than to start planning a week before President’s Day 2012 trip with friends to Disney World!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A friend who has 3 kids the same age as mine really wants to go but her husband, not so much. She’s convinced her best friend (who is a common friend that actually introduced us – and who has 2 kids herself) to go and then mentioned their plans to me - so I have officially invited myself along.

423 days until we are going to Disney on our Mommies and kids only trip!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah 151 days until my Spring trip with the inlaws – 2 count downs at once – how amazing is this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to now sit down and reevaluate my plans for this trip – I think we are going to cut out a theme park day and replace it with a visit to a water park. For anyone keeping track – me, DH & Ty have 6 theme park days and 8 water park and more options left on tickets that were a treat from my MIL on our last trip (Aug 2008) and the little ones have very old but new/never used (purchased through our local military base MWR office so yes they are legit) park hopper tickets with 7 theme park visits and 3 more options.

 

[lledman]

I feel like I've been neglecting this pre-trip report. But really there isn't much to report (and I don't think many people are following along anyway).

Christmas was nice for the family - once again the kids got way too much - we still don't have a place for everything - the entire top bunk of the camper is full of Christmas gifts that I don't know what to do with (thank goodness for our winter storage camper).

The weather here is freezing so counting down to Disney is nice – less than 125 days to go until this trip. The kids are just as excited as I am. This weekend we watched a few Disney movies. I didn’t realize that the little 2 had never seen Aladdin or Bugs Life – but they are thrilled to see the bugs now when we go to Disney. I did warn them that Hopper was going to try to be scary and jump up at them but neither seemed to care – Devin’s response was “mom he’s just a cartoon” – we did watch the 3-D show while at AK in 2008 but they were too little to remember it.

 

[lledman]

Double digit dance

99 days and counting

 

[lledman]

What a great weekend we had. The local navy base had offered a discount special to go to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg. We’ve done this deal twice before and had fun but I don’t know if it’s because the kids are getting older which means they can do more or because Chris’ mom went with us. It was great for the kids (and us) to get to spend some time with her and I think she really enjoyed it. I really appreciated having an even kid to adult ratio. Here’s some photos from our trip.

Me and my tiny girl in the Crooked Creek (lazy river)


Devin after we went down the River Canyon Run (family raft ride)


Tyra on one of the little kiddie slide in the Cub Paw Pool


We went to a local Sonic for dinner – food at the Lodge is soo expensive and we don’t have a Sonic anywhere near us so it was a cheap treat. After dinner we put on new (not wet and cold) bathing suits and went back down to the water park.

Tyler in the South Hot Springs (hot tub)


Devin & Tyra in front of Fort Mackenzie


It was getting late so we went back to our room to change into PJs and then hit up the game room. As part of our room package we got $8 to spend at the arcade.




We also checked out the 9 pm clock tower show …..




….. which included snow!!!!


The beds were super comfy - all 3 kids wanted to sleep on the pull out couch so Nanny got one of the beds all to herself. Guess that was a compromise for the little ones waking up this morning at 6:30. She was able to sleep until 8 but I don’t know how. We had buffet breakfast downstairs at the hotel restaurant – The Loose Moose Bar & Grill. Then we went back to our room and finished packing then changed back into our bathing suits. We went to the pool and stayed until sometime after 12:30.

Dev on the family raft ride again


Tyler, Hunter (he’ll be making lots of appearances in the February 2012 trip report) & Devin playing in the kiddie pool


Devin and I spent most of this morning doing the slides and Chris went off to do some stuff with Tyler – that left Tyra and her Nanny to have lots of fun together. This was a wonderful Valentine's Day present for the entire family.

The drive home was uneventful and the kids slept most of the way. I sat in the backseat of the truck with the little 2 and have decided that the 3.5 hour trip to (and from) Williamsburg is probably going to be my limit for being back there. Not sure what we are going to do for the Disney trip. My SIL’s family fills their van and my family fits in my car so we have to take the truck so Nanny can have a ride. BIL does have an Expedition but I’m not sure how they will feel about taking both their vehicles on the trip.

And since we are on the topic of Disney (isn’t it funny how everything can turn into a Disney conversation), I’ve decided that when we go (in May) we’ll be doing a day at each water park. Tyler’s got in a standing request to go back to Disney Quest so that means we’ll only do 3 days of park hoping. Even with hoppers I still like to have at least 4 days for the parks but I know I can make it work so that we can still do everything we want to do. This is actually a bonus because it means that we’ll still have 3 days of park hoppers left and 5 more options on the tickets that Nanny bought us for our last trip.